How do you feel about competition? Do you think it’s healthy? Natural? Are you that person who has to win at Scrabble or tennis or the pub quiz?

Or maybe you've read your Gaia theory and are hooked on the idea of a harmonious, post-patriarchal ecosystem that's all about balance and working together.

Many of us have come around to thinking that, at least when it comes to sustainability, it's being hyper-competitive that got into this mess. So you might be surprised to learn that competitive sustainability is the latest thing... we were!

This week on the pod, find out what else we gleaned from Australia’s first big sustainable fashion conference.

Featuring: New Era Bio, Alt Leather, Wildlife Drones and more.

Thank you to the Growth Activists for making this episode possible.

Find all the links & further reading at thewardrobecrisis.com

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Want a side of modern slavery with that?

Didn't think so.

Modern slavery is organised crime, and no one wants that lurking in their supply chain. Yet fashion and textiles are key industries implicated in this travesty that traps an estimated 50 million people worldwide in forced labour, debt bondage and human trafficking. Twelve per cent of those in forced labour are children, while women and girls are disproportionately affected. And the problem is growing, despite many countries introducing legislation to ensure large companies are taking steps to ensure their supply chains are slavery-free.

All this is intrinsically linked to low wages and wage insecurity.

As Outland Denim's James Bartle points out: "It isn't possible to make a pair pf jeans for $20, and pay people a living wage."

So, where are we at with legislation and reporting on modern slavery today? What steps can brands be taking now to ensure exploitation is part of story of their products. Why do we still have so few brands paying living wages in 2025? And finally: is it time we built the true cost of a product into its final price?

Recorded live at the Good For Business Sustainable Fashion Summit in Sydney.

With thanks to The Growth Activists, Australia's leading B Corp consultancy,

and speakers:

Dr Nga Pham, senior Research Fellow, Monash Centre for Financial Studies

Fraser Tier, Group Commercial Manager, Active Apparel Group

James Bartle - CEO & Founder, Outland Denim

Sarah Rogan - Oxfam Australia's Economic Justice & Strategic Lead

Find all the links & further reading at thewardrobecrisis.com

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Continuing our theme of fashion's crazily wasteful ways, and our focus on Latin America, this week, more Brazilian goodness, as Clare sits down with São Paolo-based industrial upcycler Agustina Comas.

We're talking fast fashion, big business, athleisure's reliance on synthetics and rethinking pattern-cutting.

BTW: how much do you know about pattern-cutting?

If you've ever done this yourself at home with paper dressmaking patterns, you'll know that you pin these onto the fabric and cut around them.

Sometimes using tailor's chalk to add markings. It's often trickier than it should be!

The scraps - or offcuts - are the wastage round the edges. And they can pile up.

On an industrial level, technicians also use paper markers. Multiple layers of fabrics are laid on the table, and many garments are being cut at a time, often using computer-controlled machines.

Of course brands try to make the most of fabric yields, even if only to save money, so if multiple styles use the same fabric, you might see these placed intricately on the marker to form a complex jigsaw puzzle.

At the end of the day, they still sweep the offcuts into the bin. Who cares? It's just scraps.

In some cases, these scraps account for 35% of the fabric.

Instant waste! Mad!

Making new stuff out of wasted old stuff is a noble idea.

But wouldn't it be better if we used less in the first place?

Agustina's got a plan for that.

Also up for discussion - Brazil's mighty craft heritage, and how women are leading the way; Shein's designs on the country (and everywhere else); and which South American designers are pushing innovation.

Find all the links & further reading at thewardrobecrisis.com

Tell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

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Hello! What are we actually doing? Our unwanted clothes don't belong dumped in Chile's beautiful Atacama Desert...

Everyone knows reasons why the global north exports used clothing to the global south - it's because fashion is too fast, quality is too low, volumes are too high, and for rich countries it's often cheaper to export your problem than it is to deal with it onshore. But even if that wasn't the case, even if you had a big dream and deep pockets, that horse has bolted - the system at scale today is about global trade.

Certainly, some of it is a reuse stream, some of it does get re-worn and recycled. Also sorted, processed and re-exported. But the fact is, too many of of these clothes become unsustainable waste that, once they reach their final destination, escape into the environment and pollute Nature and communities.

According to the UN, about 40% of the clothes imported through Chile's Iquique free trade zone in the northern Atacama, have no value in the local second-hand clothing market and cannot be re-exported. Many end up dumped in the desert.

In our annual Fashion Revolution ep, we meet the activists and creatives behind a genius campaign - Recommerce Atacama. Bastian Barria and Angela Astudillo from Desierto Vestido have joined forces with creative agency Art Plan, ecommerce platform Vtex, and Fashion Revolution Brazil to sell these clothes back to where they come from. The price? Zero dollars. The slogan: "Don't buy, rescue!"

Clare sits down with Fernanda Simon and Paula Lagrotta to unpack the issues.

More info at thewardrobecrisis.com

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Twenty-two billion! What are we playing at?!

Things get worse when we look at the materials most commonly in use. The sports shoe category in particular is a giant, influential sector, yet its waste footprint and chemical inputs tend to fall under the radar. And don't get us started on the Crocsification of everything! Injection-moulded EVA is coming to a clog near you, but don't let's pretend that's sustainable.

Increasingly, our shoes are made of frankenstein plastics, and even their creators don't necessarily know what's in them.

This week on the podcast, Clare's guest is Chandni Batra, founder of A BLUNT STORY - a disruptive Indian sandals brand on a mission detoxify your footwear, and challenge the industry to stop trashing the planet.

This is a gob-smacking conversation full of revelations about how huge numbers of shoes are made today, using oil-based plastics, potentially-toxic foams and petrochemical ingredients for all sorts of uses you’ve most likely never even heard of. Could these chemicals be leaching into our skin? What are their effects on the environment? And on the workers who must handle them? Why are modern shoes to hard to recycle? And what can be done about all this. Chandni has solutions! Ears here!

More info at thewardrobecrisis.com

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In the third of our four-part mini series on sustainable fashion in India, Clare sits down with Drishti Modi and Rashmick Bose, the duo behind slow fashion brand Lafaani. It's focused handcraft, handloom weaves, and natural dyes, and their clothes are gorgeous - we want them all!

But the founders didn't always dream of fashion careers - they're sustainability professionals who met at university studying environmental resource management. At first, it was all about biodiversity, water use in marginalised communities, and regen ag.

So how does one move from observing flying lizards in the Western Ghats, or surveying toilet numbers in remote villages, to staging runway shows? And making wonderful trench coats dyed with marigolds diverted from temple waste-streams. Somewhat of a winding road, it has to be said! Was it hard? What drives them? When you haven't been to fashion school, how do you get the design right? Who do you work with? How do you figure it all out, while staying true to your purpose?

A warm, inviting conversation that will help anybody with big sustainability ideas trying to do fashion differently.

More info at thewardrobecrisis.com

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More from our visit to India! If you listened to the last episode with stylist Daniel Franklin, you'll have heard Clare promise more to come from India's burgeoning sustainable fashion scene. This week's chat is with one of Delhi's most promising young designers, who's just shown his collection at Lakmé Fashion Week in Mumbai, and who won last year's Circular Design Challenge (run by R/Elan and UN India). He is Ritwik Khanna, founder of the edgy menswear offering and atelier RKive City. He's created a new system of working with post-consumer textile waste (lots of denim and camouflage gear) that he de-constructs, then recuts into brilliant new garments, often embellished with embroideries. The result blends cool modernity with high craft.

What's up for discussion? His process, obviously, but this is also a conversation about dignified work, what people don't realise about the second-hand and waste textile supply chain in India, and ultimately - what makes a good life.

Fancy your chances winning the Circular Design Challenge? Applications for 2025 close May 8th. Info here.

More info at thewardrobecrisis.com

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Mumbai and New Delhi take turns to host Lakmé Fashion Week, and this season it's the former that will be exploding with creative runways and high-craft fever, starting next week.

To get you in the mood, we're bringing you an Indian mini-series of the Wardrobe Crisis podcast, starting with this delightful conversation with stylist Daniel Franklin.

Daniel styled five shows last season, and has seven on the go this time, and we can't think of anyone better to contextualise India's new gen talent explosion. So yes, expect to learn the new names-to-know and what makes them tick. But Daniel studied fashion history before breaking into magazines, and this is a far-ranging discussion that gallops through the myth of the Silk Route to the truth of the colonial hangover, via a tour of India's unparalleled craft heritage. Enjoy!

More info at thewardrobecrisis.com

Tell us what you think? Find Clare on Instagram @mrspress

Got recommendations? Hit us up!

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